


Years Later

by Firenza



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Agoraphobia, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Mentioned Character Death, Post-Ancient Rome Sidequest, the soft epilogue Sasha deserves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23566291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firenza/pseuds/Firenza
Summary: Rome burns. Sasha never thought that she would be there to see it.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 25





	Years Later

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about Ancient Rome. But that doesn’t matter because this is a fiction podcast!

Rome burns. 

It’s a fact Sasha’s known her entire life. The empire of Rome burned at the hands of the Meritocrats to save the world from its reign of terror. In a way, she never really understood why they had to destroy the place to be rid of it, but it was just one of those things she didn’t question. It didn’t help her find food or shelter in Other London and it definitely wasn’t going to help her escape from Rakefine’s manor, so why should she bother. 

Years later, as she walks through the smoke clogged sewers of the city, having just watched her best friend die at the hands of an enemy they never had a chance against, she wonders if she should have paid more attention to Eldarion’s history lectures.

It doesn’t matter anymore though, does it? The only thing that mattered right now was putting one foot in front of the other and getting the hell out of Rome. 

Cicero is quiet behind her, he has been for the past hour or so. Shock, she assumes. This was literally the end of the world for him. She doesn’t try to comfort him. Not after what he said about Grizzop. Not that she could if she wanted to anyway. Talking to people was never her thing. That was always Hamid’s job. She pushes the thought of Hamid away as soon as it comes. She knows if she entertains that idea, others will come too and this was not the time or place to dwell on the past.

They climb out of the sewers and she makes Cicero walk in front of her. She at least doesn’t want him at their back if someone tries to ambush them. 

And so Rome burns at their backs as they walk away from the city. 

Luckily, Cicero knows a place they can go. It’s a few days walk, but manageable. Sasha grips her knives in her jacket tight, ready to pull them out at a moment’s notice. Nothing would catch her off guard. Not if she had anything to say about it. 

When they finally stop, they’ve been walking for hours. It’s impossible to know exactly how long it’s been as smoke covers the sky as far as they can see. Cicero all but collapses against the ground. He’s asleep within minutes. Sasha stays awake, keeping watch on the horizon, and tries her best to not let her mind wander.

The crushing weight of her situation is harder to keep at bay now that they’ve stopped walking. She’s alone in not only a completely unfamiliar place, but an unfamiliar time as well. Sasha puts her back against a tree and pulls her knees to her chest. She lays her daggers out in front of her and counts them one, twice, three times. It would have taken her mind of the situation if everytime she looked at her fire dagger or caught a glimpse of her blue scarred hand she wasn’t reminded of that awful dimension that had dragged her and Grizzop to their fates. 

She misses her friends. She misses the world she left behind even if it was never kind to her. But she knows there’s no going back. There would have to be a significant amount of magic involved and she doesn’t know any. The only thing she can do is get herself and this poor man out of this Godsforsaken place. 

After Cicero awakes, he forces her to get some rest, promising that he’ll wake her if any trouble arises. She can’t remember the last time she slept in a normal place. Maybe it was their first night in Damascus, but she can’t really remember. She’s so tired. That might be why she sleeps as deeply as she does. When she does wake, she mentally kicks herself for being so careless. If she had been asleep and they had been attacked… well, they probably would be dead already.

It takes them another two days to get to the villa Cicero told her about. She half expects it to be ransacked like most of the other settlements they’ve come across, but it is still very much pristine and intact. A few servants meet Cicero at the door talking too fast for her to keep up with. She’s picked up a little bit of the language over their walk, but not enough to hold a conversation. Later, when she’s learned a bit more Latin, she realizes that the owner of the villa was in Rome when it burned. She can’t help but feel a little sorry.

The servants, Abelus and Demipho, are too nice. They smile at her anytime she passes them in the hall, bring meals to her room on days when she cannot bring herself to get out of bed, and even go so far as to offer to help her learn Latin. They try to wash her clothes once. She doesn’t let them. 

It’s hard to go outside. There’s nothing but empty fields and rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It makes her dizzy. Demipho once asked for her help with something outside and she hardly lasted ten minutes before she had to return to her room. She feels useless.

They find the first kid wandering around the field. She’s small, no more than ten years old, and covered in soot. It’s not a stretch to assume that she came from Rome, or somewhere else the dragons had burned. Cicero immediately takes a shine to the girl. She wonders if he ever had any children, but never asks. 

More and more people start arriving, all looking for refuge. They don’t turn anyone away, how can they in a time like this? 

Slowly, she starts feeling more comfortable with everything. Latin comes easier to her when she tries to speak; she can stand out in the fields for a few minutes without feeling sick. The memories don’t hurt less though. Whenever someone asks where she came from, she dodges the question or leaves. Eventually they learn to stop asking. 

For some reason she cannot understand, the kids love her. She spends most of the day with them playing games or teaching some of the older ones to throw knives. At first the adults are confused, but everything she does confuses them. After they’re attacked by bandits and she helps to defend her new home, they start to trust her a little more.

She starts to think of these people as her family. It’s a strange thing to think about, as she’s never really had one. Unless she counted the few months with the LOLOMG that is. She teaches the kids how to flip and cartwheel and how to properly handle a knife to defend themselves. She teaches them how to sneak without being seen and how to pick a lock without being heard. 

Occasionally, she tells them stories. They’re never well told, not like how Hamid could weave a picture with words or how Azu could lighten almost any mood with a story, but the kids enjoy them and that’s what matters. Sometimes they ask about her friends. That’s another thing they learn to stop asking about. 

Years pass as the villa grows larger and larger, people coming and going all the time. The farm allows them a steady income and food supply although there really isn’t much of an economy anymore. She continues teaching them everything she knows and learns a few things herself along the way. 

Some nights, she’ll sneak up the roof. Even though it’s a common meeting place for the older kids, they leave when they see her. She’ll look up at the moon and think about Grizzop, who died so that she could have another chance. She’ll look up at the stars and think about Zolf, who taught her the constellations after their trip across the English Channel. She sees Hamid in Maximus’s desire to help no matter the cost, and Azu in the love and care that Avita exerts when bandaging a wound. 

She sees her friends in this new place, and hopes, wherever and whenever they are, they see her too. 


End file.
